A young Lady Chuck team came onto the Clearfield hardwood with no fear against a veteran squad and it showed for 30 minutes and 30 seconds. It was the last 1:30 of regulation when they couldn’t put the Lady Bisons away.
Clearfield head coach Joey Castagnolo talked about the effort of his team when things didn’t look so bright, “I mean these girls just refused to say die when it wasn’t going very well for us. And even though it is early in the season we knew we had to win this game and we did. Punxsutawney is the team of the future in district nine. But knowing we can win a game like this one really helps.”
The Lady Bisons trailed 45-41 with 90 seconds left but found a way to tie the game at 46-46 to send the contest into overtime against the scrappy Lady Chucks.
Clearfield had jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the first quarter only to have the Chucks come back late in the first frame to make it 11-10 Clearfield after one.
The two squads played dead even basketball in the second eight minutes, each scoring 15 points to have Clearfield stay out in front at the half, 26-25.
Punxsutawney took command in the third quarter as they outscored Clearfield 16-10 with five Lady Chucks adding points in that third stanza.
For the Lady Bisons it was junior Dakota Farmery who kept her team in the game as she scored nine of the 10 Clearfield points. Clearfield still would trail by five going into the final quarter 41-36.
The Lady Bisons would play their best defense of the night in the fourth eight minutes as they held their visitors to only five points while scoring 10 themselves to knot the game at 46-46 with overtime staring at both teams.
Neither team could pull away in the first overtime frame with both scoring six points to send the contest into a second overtime at 52-52.
The Lady Chucks could only muster a three-pointer by Alyssa Reitz in the second overtime as Clearfield had four players adding eight points to pull out a 60-55 win.
The win has Clearfield at 1-1 on the year while the Lady Chucks dropped to 0-5.
Farmery led all scorers on the night with 23 while teammates Breanna Peters and Lisa Ambuski also had double figures, Peters with 12 and Ambuski with 10.
Castagnolo was also impressed with the board work put in by Farmery, “ Dakota (Farmery) just dominated the boards on both ends tonight and it was because she was getting good position.”
Punxsutawney was paced by freshman Ally Fye, off of the bench, with 12 and Taylor Newcome with 11. Newcome had three treys on the night.
The Punxsutawney bench actually outscored their starting five 29-26 and held a big edge over the Clearfield bench which only scored two points.
Castagnolo spoke about his bench afterwards, “This was the type of game that we couldn’t utilize our bench much. They’re just not quite ready yet, but in time it will come.”
In the junior varsity game it was Punxsutawney coming away with a 34-11 win.
The Lady Bisons will travel to Martinsburg on Wednesday to play Central with the JV game starting at 6 pm and the varsity to immediately follow.
See photos of the game here: http://www.ladybisonsports.org/lbsbball121911.html
PUNXSUTAWNEY – 55
Johnna Depp 0 0-0 0, Alex Magill 3 1-4 8, Lauren Giavedoni 0 0-0 0, Taylor Newcome 4 0-0 11, Ashley Reitz 3 1-3 7, Emily Horner 0 0-0 0, Jensen Constantino 3 0-0 6, Nicole Dipietro 3 0-0 8, Ally Fye 4 4-7 12, Alyssa Reitz1 0-1 3, TOTALS – 21 6-15 55.
CLEARFIELD – 60
Kristen Butler 1 5-8 7, Dakota Farmery 10 3-6 23, Lisa Ambuski 2 5-6 10, Rachel Thompson 3 0-0 6, Breanna Peters 4 4-6 12, Brittany Renaud 1 0-0 2, Ciara Marsh 0 0-0 0, Janelle Mumma 0 0-0 0, Katherine Sheeder 0 0-0 0, TOTALS – 21 17-26 60.
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
PUNXSUTAWNEY 10 15 16 5 6 3 55
CLEARFIELD 11 15 10 10 6 8 60
THREE-POINTERS: Newcome 3, Dipietro 2, Magill, Alyssa Reitz, Ambuski
OFFICIALS: John Fricker, Greg Posteraro, Rich Rhoades
